Mystery Pox
So this has been a busy, emotional, draining, frustrating, and somewhat scary weekend for my household. As most of you know I was throwing a baby shower for my best friend on Sunday but before that my daughter had a gymnastics exhibition on Friday. Friday afternoon when I picked her up she had what appeared to be rug burn on her knee and foot. I honestly didn't think much about it... Kids are kids right? They pop up with the weirdest bruises and scrapes all the time.... I put some Neosporin on them and called it a night. Saturday morning however they had changed. They now looked completely different and like nothing I had ever seen before. They had changed from a red to almost purple with a dark spot in the middle and both areas were swollen. I was understandably worried and took her to the emergency room to be seen. They looked at her areas and said they had no idea what it was but here are some antibiotics and to come back if there were any changes... They didn't run any tests at that time but they said she was most likely not contagious and to have her feet up the rest of Saturday but by Sunday she would be fine to resume normal activities. Aurora was not happy about the having her feet up part. She kept saying "But Mama I'm FINE!!" She never ran a fever or had any other symptoms.
Sunday comes and we have the baby shower. Aurora goes off with my mothers boyfriend for a fun day of fishing since baby showers are boring apparently. But they come back right at the end of the shower. Aurora has more mystery spots. Aurora, my mother, her boyfriend, and I all pack up and head back to the hospital. A different doctor sees her and says again "I have no idea what this is but we will run some blood test and see what we get back." At this point I just feel so helpless. There is something wrong with my daughter and no one knows what it is. To look at her you wouldn't know anything was wrong. She is happy and laughing and wanting to play but these spots keep coming up. Her ankles are so swollen and bruised looking behind the spots and there are bruises coming up behind the other spots as well.
I feel ya, Chilly!
The worst moment at the hospital was having to hold her while they drew her blood. She was so scared and it absolutely broke my heart. I can't even describe how hard that was. We basically played a waiting game all night. Mom and Don left at one point to go get us all food and Aurora a toy. Finally at 2:30am they come in and tell us that she has a slightly elevated level of white blood cells but other than that she is fine. Oh, and to go see a doctor that has an actual practice because they see more of this "type of thing." So we leave. And then Monday morning I am calling around trying to find somewhere I can get her in. We finally find the right one and off we go. Again, Aurora, my mother, and I are off to the doctors office. And again, they look at her and they have no idea what they are. I am so frustrated and worried and helpless feeling at this point I just want to cry. They recommended we see a dermatologist as soon as possible. The doctors office was amazing in that they actually did call and get us an appointment that day with a wonderful dermatologist in town.
So we grab some lunch and waste some time before heading to the dermatologists office. We get in the room and go through everything all over again. Explaining the timeline, showing the pictures, telling what happened with the other doctors. The nurse practitioner was so sweet as she looked over Aurora but again she had no idea. She told us we got the "mystery rash of the day award." This did not make me feel very good at all to be honest. The actual dermatologist was unfortunately out of town but they took a ton of pictures, had me email them all of my pictures, got all her labs from the hospital, and sent everything to her to review. She then consulted with another dermatologist in town. Then they took another round of pictures. Then the team conversed, deliberated, and came to a conclusion. The nurse practitioner returned. They would have to do a biopsy to be sure but they think they might know what it is. (Which what they think it might be she is actually technically out of the age range for when it usually occurs)
I was stunned. You want to do a biopsy on my six year old little girl? My baby. You want to cut a piece of my daughters flesh from her body?? But of course we have to find out what is going on with her so we explain everything to Aurora and get the room set up for it. I thought getting blood drawn was hard? This. This was hard. We learned in the absolute worst way that Aurora requires more anesthesia than the average adult. She felt everything at the beginning. They kept trying to numb it and then start back up but it took quite a bit to finally numb the area. I felt like the worst mom ever but I knew we had to do this so we could find out what is wrong. We should be getting the results back today or tomorrow. That's right. We STILL don't know for sure what is going on. We know she isn't contagious. We know the spots don't itch and only hurt if you touch them. We know she isn't running a fever. But we don't know what is causing the spots, the bruising, or the swelling.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week. I hope its nothing. I hope that when we get the results back they will tell us that it is nothing major and to take this and everything will clear up.
Stay Perfect!